The mighty Danube River flows 2.880 km from its springs in Germany’s Black Forest to the Black Sea. Just before reaching the sea it forms the second largest and best preserved of Europe’s deltas: 5.700 square kilometres of rivers, reed islands, narrow canals, marshes, tree-fringed lakes. The Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation (UNESCO World Heritage natural site since 1991) is the third-richest biosphere reservation in the world in terms of biodiversity, after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. It is home to more than 7,000 known species of plants and animals known and, scientists believe, still more as yet unknown.